Brewery profits in WW II

Just like WW I, despite all the restrictions on their activities, the war was good for brewers’ profits. With virtually limitless demand, selling beer was no problem. Even if its quality left much to be desired.

Benskins is a good example of a medium-sized brewery, of which there were still a large number in the 1940s. I’ve selected them pretty much at random.

Their story parallels the vicissitudes of the UK brewing industry in the 1930s and 1940s. The dip in profits in 1932 was typical. In 1931 there was an increase in the tax on beer which had a dramatic effect on beer consumption and, with it, brewery profits.

After the tax increase was rolled back in 1933, trade picked up and this is reflected in a modest increase in profits, which then stabilised at around £250,000 until the start of the war. Dividend also picked up, from a low of 10% in 1932 to 18.5% when war erupted.

Despite massive increases in the price of malt and the rate of tax, after a small dip in 1940, profits rose steadily throughout the war, peaking in 1947. The dividend rose to 20% in 1944 and remained there until 1949. The fall in profits in 1948 and 1949 reflects the difficult economic circumstances in post-war austerity Britain and falling beer consumption.

Post-war profits were boosted by a refund of the wartime Excess Profits Tax, which in 1946 amounted to £67,001.

During the war, Bekskins were able to build up considerable reserves of cash: £525,000 for general purposes and £265,000 for repairs and improvements to their tied houses.

The war, despite all the difficulties it brought with it, was good for Benskins financially, as it was for the industry in general. The cash reserves would have been very useful post-war, as very little investment could be made in either the brewery or tied houses during hostilities due to restrictions on building work and the impossibility of sourcing new equipment.

Benskins Brewery profits 1921 - 1929
Year ending 30th Sept.	brought in	net profit	carry forward	to reserve	to reserve for property improvements	dividend ordinary shares
1931	£166,081	£215,674	£107,995	£22,000	£25,000	11.5%
1932	£107,995	£187,936	£135,231	£20,000	£25,000	10%
1933	£135,231	£207,442	£134,482	£20,000	£25,000	12.5%
1934	£134,482	£220,217	£143,399	£25,000	£25,000	15%
1935	£143,399	£243,515	£152,814	£25,000	£25,000	17.5%
1936	£152,814	£258,692	£154,777	£24,828	£25,000	20%
1937	£154,777	£266,101	£163,978	£28,000	£25,000	20%
1938	£163,978	£255,167	£163,925	£37,000	£25,000	18.5%
1939	£163,925	£257,008	£177,713			18.5%
1940	£177,713	£238,847	£173,340	£25,000	£25,000	18.5%
1941	£173,340	£246,325	£176,446	£25,000	£25,000	18.5%
1942	£176,446	£257,481	£181,771	£50,000		18.5%
1943	£181,771	£263,221	£186,772	£40,000	£25,000	18.5%
1944	£186,772	£281,667	£188,187	£48,878	£26,475	20%
1945	£188,187	£282,579	£193,866			20%
1946	£193,866	£290,891	£207,857	£45,000	£25,000	20%
1947	£207,857	£303,866				20%
1948		£294,640				25%
1949		£277,778				20%
Sources:
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Tuesday 01 December 1931, page 13.
Herts and Essex Observer - Saturday 03 December 1932, page 4.
Aberdeen Press and Journal - Saturday 02 December 1933, page 10.
Herts and Essex Observer - Saturday 08 December 1934, page 2.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Friday 29 November 1935, page 14.
Aberdeen Press and Journal - Thursday 26 November 1936, page 11.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Thursday 02 December 1937, page 12.
Nottingham Journal - Friday 02 December 1938, page 8.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Tuesday 05 December 1939, page 3.
Belfast Telegraph - Tuesday 03 December 1940, page 6.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Thursday 21 November 1940, page 5.
The Scotsman - Monday 01 December 1941, page 2.
Dundee Courier - Saturday 05 December 1942, page 4.
Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 05 December 1942, page 4.
The Scotsman - Saturday 04 December 1943, page 3.
The Scotsman - Saturday 20 November 1943, page 2.
Western Mail - Friday 24 November 1944, page 4.
Halifax Evening Courier - Wednesday 21 November 1945, page 3.
The Scotsman - Wednesday 20 November 1946, page 2.
The Scotsman - Friday 14 November 1947, page 2.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Saturday 13 November 1948, page 5.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Friday 12 November 1948, page 3.
The Scotsman - Tuesday 15 November 1949, page 2.

 

 

Let's Brew - 1940 Fullers AK

A style that mostly occurred in the South, AK had come under pressure in WW I. As a relatively low-ABV Pale Ale, it was particularly vulnerable to a general drop in gravities.

This is the last hurray of Fullers version. Literally stricken form history. A slightly later brewing record has AK crossed out, as Fullers drastically overhauled their range of Pale Ales. It started the war with such a low gravity and brewed in such small quantities that it was never going to last the duration.

AK as a type was driven to near extermination by two world wars. Its mistake being to start off pretty weak. In the late 19th century, dozens of breweries produced a beer called AK. After WW II, there were no more than a handful left.

This example was parti-gyled, as usual, with PA and XK.

Turning to the recipe, the flaked maize has been dropped in favour of flaked rice. As you would expect. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of change.

There were four types of English hops, one from the 1939 harvest, the rest from 1938. 

1940 Fullers AK
pale malt	5.75 lb	87.44%
flaked rice	0.75 lb	11.41%
No. 2 invert sugar	0.033 lb	0.50%
glucose	0.033 lb	0.50%
caramel 1000 SRM	0.01 lb	0.15%
Fuggles 90 min	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 min	1.00 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1029
FG	1008.5
ABV	2.71
Apparent attenuation	70.69%
IBU	29
SRM	4
Mash at	151º F
After underlet	153º F
Sparge at	168º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	WLP002 English Ale

AK grists after WW II

We're nearly done. Just a couple more posts and that will be it for AK. At least for now.

I have been considering lumping all these posts and a few extra recipes into a book. Which I'd predictably call AK!. Would anyone be interested in that? It wouldn't be a huge book, probably only about 60 or 70 pages.

There's a surprisingly large number of malts represented: seven in all. Though no single beer contains more than four and most only a couple. Most is in the form of base malt, which isn't all pale malt, as you might expect.

Strong used a combination of PA malt, the best-quality pale malt and mild malt. The latter seeming to negate the former. Not sure why they'd go for that combination. The others all stick with trusty old pale malt, except for the 1967 iteration of Eldridge Pope, which includes a hefty amount of lager malt as well as wheat malt. 

Eldridge Pope's beer was the only one to use crystal malt. In the case of the 1982 version rather a lot, coming to almost 20% of the total grist.

AK grists after WW II
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	pale malt	PA malt	mild malt	black malt	crystal malt	lager malt	wheat malt
22nd Jan	1946	Shepherd Neame	AK	84.87%			2.27%
15th Jul	1947	Shepherd Neame	AK	92.31%
19th Mar	1952	Strong	SAK		29.13%	55.34%
3rd Jan	1964	Eldridge Pope	BAK	76.49%				5.97%		4.88%
6th Jan	1967	Eldridge Pope	BAK	49.86%				8.03%	19.39%	10.53%
17th May	1982	Eldridge Pope	BAK	74.19%				19.35%		6.45%
27th Jun	1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK	70.00%				10.00%		7.14%
Sources:
Strong brewing record, number 79A01-A3-3-27.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery.

Adjuncts next.

 

AK after WW II

Finally, we're at the end of the AK road, having reached the post-war period. I hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as I have. However unlikely that might be.

Even though not everyone was aware of them all, there were at least three AKs still being brewed at the start of the 1980s. McMullen's, the obvious one, Courage's (formerly Holes), the obscure one and Eldridge Pope's, the hidden one.

As you can see, versions after the war were very much like those produced during it, in terms of strength. A fairly puny one, at around 1030º. About the minimum level that's worth bothering with.

The hopping rate rate is also similar to that of wartime, at around 5 lbs per quarter (336 lbs) of malt. Which is also pretty low.

Varying from just over 60% to 85%, the apparent rate of attenuation is all over the place. So much so, that I can't really draw any conclusions.

AK after WW II
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	lbs hops/ qtr	hops lb/brl
22nd Jan	1946	Shepherd Neame	AK	1027.1	1005.8	2.82	78.57%	4.64	0.55
15th Jul	1947	Shepherd Neame	AK	1027.1	1004.2	3.04	84.69%	4.80	0.53
19th Mar	1952	Strong	SAK	1030.5	1006.1	3.22	80.00%	5.03	0.61
3rd Jan	1964	Eldridge Pope	BAK	1030.2	1007.8	2.97	74.31%	5.10	0.61
6th Jan	1967	Eldridge Pope	BAK	1030.2	1011.6	2.46	61.47%	5.81	0.69
17th May	1982	Eldridge Pope	BAK	1030.2	1006.1	3.19	79.82%	9.03	0.82
27th Jun	1984	Eldridge Pope	BAK	1032.7	1005.0	3.66	84.75%	4.00	0.54
		Average		1029.7	1006.6	3.05	77.66%	5.49	0.62
Sources:
Strong brewing record, number 79A01-A3-3-27.
Eldridge Pope brewing record.
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery.

To finish, here are some details of the current survivor, McMullen'a:

McMullen's AK 1967 - 2002
Year	Brewer	Beer	OG	FG	ABV	App. Atten-uation	colour
1967	McMullen	AK	1034	1004.5	3.69	86.76%	25
1977	McMullen	AK	1033
1979	McMullen	AK	1033
1981	McMullen	AK	1033
1982	McMullen	AK	1033
1982	McMullen	AK	1033
1983	McMullen	AK	1033
1989	McMullen	AK	1033	1003.8	3.80	88.48%
1999	McMullen	AK	1034
2002	McMullen	AK	1036
Sources:
Whitbread Gravity book held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/02/002.
Good Beer Guide 1978, Good Beer Guide 1980, Good Beer Guide 1982, Good Beer Guide 1983, Good Beer Guide 1983, Good Beer Guide 1984, Good Beer Guide 1990.
What's Brewing (Beer) May  2005, p.17; July 2005 p.5
What's Brewing (Beer) July 2005 p.5

Interesting to see that the gravity increased a little in the 1990s.

Grists next time.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1945 Shepherd Neame AK

Even the biggest fan of Light Bitter must be getting fed up of AK by now. Not me. Once I get started on something, I find it hard to stop.

Here's another watery wartime recipe to enthrall you.  From a brewery that stuck brewing AK longer than most, Shepherd Neame.

I’m surprised that it survived this long. Down at the minimum practical (economically) since 1943, there was nowhere down for it to go. With another Pale Ale just a few degrees stronger, any further reduction in the IG of BB would spell doom for AK. Yet it manged to stumble on until the early 1950s.

As Shepherd Neame didn’t record primings, the effective OG could have been a little higher. Low-gravity draught beers were often primed to make sure there were enough fermentables to condition the cask.

Just one type of pale malt, flaked barley and a tiny bit of malt extract. Not exciting at all. The gravity also remains exactly the same as in the last two years.

There is a little excitement in the hopping, where American hops have made a comeback. Very few hops were imported after 1941, except for 1943 when 3,254 cwt. were brought in.  I’m guessing from the USA, most other prominent hop regions being under Nazi control. 10 lbs, out of a total of 242 lbs, were Oregon from the 1942 harvest. The quantity is so small, I haven’t included it in the recipe.

The remaining hops were all English, from the 1941, 1943 and 1944 seasons, 50% being from the earliest year. In response to which I’ve reduced the rate a fair bit in the recipe.

1945 Shepherd Neame AK
pale malt	6.50 lb	88.68%
flaked barley	0.75 lb	10.23%
malt extract	0.080 lb	1.09%
Fuggles 120 mins	0.50 oz
Fuggles 60 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings 30 mins	0.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.25 oz
OG	1027
FG	1006
ABV	2.78
Apparent attenuation	77.78%
IBU	15
SRM	3
Mash at	154º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	63º F
Yeast	a Southern English Ale yeast

AK hops during WW II

I doubt it will come as much of a shock that the hops used in AK during the war were almost exclusively English.

Hop imports almost totally dried up during the war. Falling from 44,056 cwt. in 1939 to just 2,024 cwt. in 1940. During the last four years of the war a total of a mere 3,589 cwt. were imported. The vast majority - 3,254 cwt. - in 1943.* That must have been the year when Shepherd Neame's Oregon hops were imported.

I am slightly surprised that Shepherd Neame were still using hops from the 1940 and 1941 seasons as late as 1944. By the later war years brewers had mostly used up their old stocks and were limited to hops from the most recent harvest and possibly the one before that.

It's a shame Shepherd Neame didn't bother recording the growing region. We can, however, safely assume that the majority were from Kent. What with the brewery being located in that county and having its own hop gardens.

AK hops during WW II
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
23rd Jan	1940	Greene King	AK	EK (1936)	EK (1938)
8th May	1940	Fullers	AK	English (1938)	English (1939)
20th May	1940	Shepherd Neame	AK	English (1937)	English (1938)	English (1939)
25th May	1941	Fullers	AK	English (1939)	English (1940)
4th Feb	1943	Shepherd Neame	AK	English (1939)	English (1941)	English (1942)
18th Dec	1943	Shepherd Neame	AK	English (1940)	English (1941)	English (1942)	English (1943)
21st Feb	1944	Shepherd Neame	AK	English (1940)	English (1941)	English (1942)	English (1943)
27th Nov	1944	Shepherd Neame	AK	English (1941)	English (1943)	English (1944)	Oregon (1942)
22nd Feb	1945	Shepherd Neame	AK	English (1941)	English (1943)	English (1944)	Oregon (1942)
7th May	1945	Shepherd Neame	AK	English (1941)	English (1943)	English (1944)	Oregon (1942)
Sources:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Greene King brewing record held at the brewery, document number AC93/1/14 .
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery.

* 1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 64.

AK sugars during WW II

Given the high percentage of malt in these beers, it's little surprise that they don't contain a huge amount of sugar. Loads of different types, mind.

Only one, No. 2 invert, appears in more than one, Greene King and Fullers. But only in tiny quantities, the largest amount is less than 2.5%. You'll note that it's far less than before the war, when it was just shy of 10%. Doubtless the reduction was due to difficulties in sugar supply.

CWA, the other sugar, I found was described as a starch conversion syrup, that is an enzymatic syrup. I assume it must have been added in the mash tun rather than the kettle. 

Intense was a caramel of some sort. Pretty obvious from both the name and the minute amount employed. Its use will have been for colour correction rather than flavour of fermentable material.

The malt extract used by Shepherd Neame was EDME, a type of diastatic malt syrup. I suppose it's technically a type of sugar, despite being derived from malt. The candy sugar used in one example was presumably employed as primings..

AK sugars during WW II
Date	Year	Brewer	Beer	malt extract	no. 2 sugar	glucose	CWA	Intense	candy
23rd Jan	1940	Greene King	AK		2.35%		2.35%
8th May	1940	Fullers	AK		0.63%	0.63%		0.09%
20th May	1940	Shepherd Neame	AK
25th May	1941	Fullers	AK		1.39%	1.39%		0.09%
4th Feb	1943	Shepherd Neame	AK	0.69%
18th Dec	1943	Shepherd Neame	AK	0.66%
21st Feb	1944	Shepherd Neame	AK	0.64%					0.64%
27th Nov	1944	Shepherd Neame	AK	0.66%
22nd Feb	1945	Shepherd Neame	AK	0.66%
7th May	1945	Shepherd Neame	AK	1.32%
Sources:
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Greene King brewing record held at the brewery, document number AC93/1/14 .
Shepherd Neame brewing record held at the brewery.

Hops next time.